AO has always been "a hard game" and many ppl appreciated this!
Over the years it has been made easier and easier in every single aspect like leveling, obtaining gear, boss encounters etc.
Game like AO will not become or beat in terms of popularity games like Counterstrike or WoW but dumbing it down more and more will surely make "an old population who like AO challanges" quit...
Adding new and more OP gear without increasing strenght of bosses and major encounters is A BAD IDEA !!!
I remember 10 - 12 years ago (with huge population) IS raids where 2-3 teams (no raid interfece back then) where wiped out by Hezak and Mercs were often a fight between Omnis and Clan with as many as 60-100 ppl on each side.
Today thx to stupid FC "strategy" of dumbing down AO, we have a lot smaller population and encounters like Hezak or Mercs can be done solo by 1 person (even without any Multiboxing - which is another HUGE problem of AO)
So my conclusion at this time is the following:
1. AO will not become "the most popular" and the highest income MMORPG no matter how much FC will dumb it down!
2. The strenght of AO is its uniques and difficulty which attracts many ppl/customers for many years so dumbing it down and trying to make it "massive and more popular" will make more harm than good"...
3. Stick to loyal playerbase, try to make as many veterans (bored with "new and easy games") to come back to AO instead of dumbing down AO which makes more veterans leave AO than new players to join it ...